Supermarket Sweep

EGG Website: www.egg.com Where’s it based? London, UK We spoke to: Rob Hudson, business manager, Egg Invest Background: Egg was the UK’s first fund supermarket when insurance giant Prudential launched it in May 2000. It started with 150 funds and 12 managers and now has about twice that. It has Ł100m

FONDMARKNADEN Website: www.fondmarknaden.se Where’s it based? Stockholm, Sweden We spoke to: Oliver Lagerstrom, senior vice-president at MFEX Background: Fondmarknaden was launched in 1999 by technology platform Mutual Funds Exchange (MFEX). It offers about 2400 funds from 64 fund companies and is the largest fund supermarket in Sweden, with 20,000 customers. MFEX has another fund supermarket in Sweden and has just launched in The Netherlands, through a partnership with the country’s eighth largest bank. SNS.

VEGA FINANCE Website: www.vegafinance.fr Where’s it based? Paris, France. We spoke to: Dominique Hartog, director, Vega Finance. Background: Vega Finance was launched in 1989 as a broker and is now a bank. It started as a dealer of funds in 1994. It is the second largest fund supermarket provider in France and offers nearly 6000 funds from more than 200 managers. It offers all the 4000 or so domestic funds registered in France and about 2000 foreign funds authorised for sale in the country.

DIREKT ANLAGE BANK Website: www.dab-bank.com Where’s it based? Munich, Germany We spoke to: Matthias Kröner, member and speaker of the DAB management board. Background: Direkt Anlage launched its fund supermarket in 1994. It offers 3500 funds from about 140 providers, in the business to customer market. These are all the funds registered in Germany.